After All
by toonsta
Summary: There are days when being in seventh year with her best friend, her boyfriend and her brother just plain old sucks in Ginny's opinion.


**After All**

Ginny Weasley loved her best friend, her brother and her boyfriend… truly, she did. But there were some days (today being one of them) that she really wished they weren't in her class.

Why? Most would assume she would be delighted to have them in seventh year with her. And she had been. At first. And was (most of the time). But there were days (like today) that she just wished… wished… that they were **not** in every class she took. In fact she wished that they weren't in **any** of the classes she took.

And sometimes her fingers itched to just pick up her wand and hex the lot of them!

And inevitably she would land up feeling guilty for having this feeling… and inevitably that would just make her all the more irritable; because why should she feel guilty!

And then she would stalk off to the Ravenclaw table for lunch with Luna to try to regain some of her sanity. And the irony of the fact that she ran to Luna for sanity was not lost on her. She didn't mean to knock Luna; she loved Luna (more and more the more she learned how to tune out the rubbish about crumple-horned snorkacks and appreciate her honesty, integrity, kindness and innate faith and optimism) but nobody could deny she was a bit nutty. Ginny had come to realize that this wasn't a bad thing.

What was a bad thing was the fact that she was sitting in charms, usually her best and favorite class, wishing she could lean forward and wring her brothers' neck (and maybe his girlfriends' too).

They were arguing (again) in not-so-hushed voices (as usual) over something ridiculously stupid (who would've guessed). And yet again Harry was blissfully oblivious… systematic desensitization, while she was left completely incapable of concentrating and working on grinding her teeth into dust.

This was all so _painfully_ repetitive.

And suddenly all the bad aspects of having them in her class came flooding to the forefront of her mind and she sat silently fuming rather than practicing wand movements.

For one thing she hated what a know it all Hermione was! She was used to being called on for answers in Flitwicks class. She was not used to seeing Hermione's hand shoot up, narrowly missing taking off Ron's ear, before Flitwick had even finished asking his question.

And it happened in _every_ class!

And Ginny wasn't generally a sore loser, she wasn't generally the jealous type (honestly), but she had liked being one of the top of her class… and Hermione made them all look like dunces! She did _not_ like looking (or feeling) like a dunce!

And most days it didn't bother her that Hermione was a know it all (in fact sometimes it was rather handy); it was so much part of Hermione that she was generally used to it. But when you piled being showed up in class on top of all the other little gripes of days like today, it just became downright unbearable!

And then there was the constant bickering with Ron… grrr… she could just throttle them!

They'd always done it… but it had never been in class when she needed to pay attention. And somehow it just became ten times more irritating when you were hearing the arguments almost every minute of every day (at least that's how it felt to Ginny).

And then there were the constant whispers and looks that followed them around _everywhere_, no matter where they went there was always a darn pair of eyes on them. And that meant that there were eyes on _her_ twenty-four seven too. And that was just plain creepy!

And she had to watch all the girls in her class mentally undressing _her_ boyfriend… and (eeeew!) her brother!

And she had always known girls did it, had seen them doing it frequently enough before… but to have it so blatantly rubbed in your face when you were attempting to transfigure him into a toad… it was just infuriating! And then you'd land up with a turnip rather than a toad for a boyfriend and McGonagall would click her tongue at you and transfigure him back and praise Hermione for the perfect Ron-Toad sitting in her lap.

And then there was the fact that sometimes, despite the fact that she was the best friend/ sister/ girlfriend, it still seemed as if there was an exclusive Harry-Ron-and-Hermione club that Ginny just couldn't join. And she was just so tired of being the fourth wheel on their tricycle… like last night when she'd walked into the common room and sat down with them only to find that conversation was brought to an abrupt close by her presence.

And by the time Ginny had found her way to the great hall she had worked herself into such a state of resentment that when she threw herself into the seat across from Luna she actually verbalized some of her feelings.

"Sometimes I just _hate_ having them in my class!"

Luna didn't seem to need to be told who 'them' was. She merely stabbed a piece of broccoli with her fork and vaguely said; "It is a bit strange isn't it?" before putting the broccoli in her mouth.

For a moment Ginny was a bit perplexed as to whether Luna was talking about her food or her friends.

Luna chewed and swallowed.

"It's quite nice sometimes though." Luna remarked. "And if they weren't in our class either Voldemort would still be around or they'd be dead…" She told Ginny matter-of-factly. "Actually it would probably be both." And then Luna seemed to loose interest in the conversation and went back to her broccoli.

And suddenly the wind completely left Ginny's sails and she stared unseeing at her goblet of pumpkin juice as Luna made a remark about Knargles.

And then Harry threw himself into the seat next to her.

"I am going to throttle Ron and Hermione!" He declared, viciously slopping mashed potato onto his plate. "They _never_ stop arguing!"

Perhaps Harry wasn't quite so immune to Ron and Hermione after all.

Luna's large eyes surveyed them with amusement.

"They don't, do they?" Ginny said, looking up at Harry and smiling. And then she leaned in and gave him a quick kiss.

Maybe having them in her class wasn't so bad after all.

**AN:** Reviews equal love! Constructive criticism earns you extra brownie points! ;)


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